The invention relates generally to ontology processing, and relates more particularly to ontology security.
A central issue under consideration by the World Wide Web Consortium is ontology security and privacy. In particular, as ontologies proliferate and automatic reasoners become more powerful, it becomes more difficult to protect sensitive information. That is, as facts can be inferred from other facts, it becomes increasingly likely that information included in an ontology, while not sensitive itself, may nevertheless enable inference of information that is deemed sensitive.
A competing concern, on the other hand, is the ability to provide an adequate or useful amount of information for ontology processing applications such as querying, navigating and reasoning. This concern is often at odds with the desire to limit or prevent access to information that may contribute to the inference of sensitive information.
Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus for safe ontology reasoning.